Hagel grilled on Bergdahl prisoner swap

House Armed Services panel includes three San Diego County lawmakers probing controversial deal

Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel arrives on Capitol Hill in Washington, Wednesday, June 11, 2014, to testify before the House Armed Services Committee. Hagel will face angry lawmakers as he becomes the first Obama administration official to testify publicly about the controversial prisoner swap with the Taliban. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)
The Associated Press

Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel arrives on Capitol Hill in Washington, Wednesday, June 11, 2014, to testify before the House Armed Services Committee. Hagel will face angry lawmakers as he becomes the first Obama administration official to testify publicly about the controversial prisoner swap with the Taliban. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)

The swap of Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl for five Taliban prisoners was an extraordinary situation that had to take place quickly, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel told a skeptical House Armed Services Committee Wednesday.

“We do whatever it takes,” Hagel said. “The exchange needed to take place efficiently, quickly and quietly.”

He said Qatari intermediaries had warned that the pact was in danger of collapsing and that agreeing to trade Bergdahl for the anti-government Taliban fighters held at the U.S. prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, was difficult.

Numerous members of Congress on both sides of the aisle have criticized the deal, saying the U.S. paid too a high a price to get Bergdahl back and that those released may reappear on the battlefields of Afghanistan. Under the deal, the Taliban must stay in Qatar for a year.

“The president’s decision to move forward with the transfer of these detainees was a tough call,” Hagel said. “I supported it.”

Hagel said there is always some risk of releasing Guantánamo inmates, which he said has occurred 620 times in recent years, most when George W. Bush was president.

“Our operation to save Sgt. Bergdahl’s life was absolutely consistent with U.S. law,” Hagel said.

His remarks came at the start of the Capitol Hill hearing before the armed services panel that includes three San Diego lawmakers. The hearing lasted more than four hours and was the first appearance by an administration official before Congress to answer questions about the issue.

Hagel described the circumstances of getting Bergdahl back “fleeting” and that is why the administration acted quickly without notifying Congress.

“War is a dirty business,” he said. “Wars are messy and they’re full of imperfect choices.”

Hagel said he also didn’t believe any precedent had been set despite the fact that Bergdahl was being held in Pakistan by the al-Qaida affiliated Haqqani network, a group on the U.S. list of terrorist organizations. Hagel deflected that by saying the negotiations were conducted with the Qataris.

Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-Alpine, pressed Hagel on why other options to get Bergdahl back weren’t recommended to the president.

“This was the one option,” Hagel stressed.

Hunter said that former Navy SEAL Mike Lumpkin, who ran against the congressman in 2008, was working other channels to secure Bergdahl in his role a deputy defense secretary for special operations.

“You had other options that we know people in your department looked at,” Hunter said.

Rep. Susan Davis, D-San Diego, quizzed Hagel about the speed in which it all came together.

“We had information ... that this effort might be the last real effort we had to get him back,” Hagel said

Davis asked about other lines of communication with Bergdahl’s captors to get him back without having to trade the five Guantánamo inmates.

“We looked at all the options and all the possibilities,” Hagel said. “This was the best possibility that we had to get him out.”

Davis pressed Hagel on whether the trade always included the five Taliban. Hagel said at one point it involved six of the detainees.

Hagel also said he has personally been assured that no U.S. troops died in the search for Bergdahl during the entire time he was missing and in Taliban custody.

“I have seen no evidence that directly links any American combat death to the rescue or finding or search of Sergeant Bergdahl,” he said.

Committee Chairman Buck McKeon, R-Santa Clarita, called the trade a dangerous precedent that he said increases the risk to U.S. troops in Afghanistan and elsewhere.

“It also was a violation of the law,” McKeon said in reference to a statute requiring Congress be notified of prisoner swaps 30 days in advance that the Obama administration ignored. “There is no compelling reason why the department could not have provided notice.”

The ranking Democrat on the panel, Rep. Adam Smith, D-Washington, said the action was all about bringing home an American soldier who had been in captivity for half a decade.

“Understand the idea that under no circumstance that under no circumstances would we negotiate with the Taliban has been rejected by nearly everyone,” Smith said.

The Army is conducting a thorough review of why Bergdahl was away from his post on his own when he was captured, Hagel said, adding that the precise details are still murky.

He also said he has been offended by threats issued to the Bergdahl family.

Hagel also addressed a recent comment from retired Marine Corps Gen. James Mattis, who said the release of Bergdahl removes the threat of him being killed in retaliation for strikes against the Taliban and thus frees battlefield commanders from that concern.

“I agree with his analysis and I am glad he said those things,” the secretary said. “His specific points not only are accurate, but they come from someone who knows about this business.”

Bergdahl remains at a U.S. medical facility in Germany where he is being treated and counseled in advance of return to U.S. soil.

The House Appropriations Committee this week voted to bar money for any other transfers of Guantanamo detainees and wants an assurance from Hagel that congressional notification rules will be followed.